Robots competing in Australia at Sydney Olympic Park March 11 to 18, 2018

22 international teams and 51 Aussie teams are competing at Sydney Olympic Park in a competition that "teaches students and engineering skills when they're building their own robots".

An organisation called "FIRST Australia", which has been running its "FIRST Robotics Competition" for the past 26 seasons, is holding its 27th season this year.

FIRST happens to stand for "For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology,' and founded in the US in 1989. It was brought to Australia in 2006 by Macquarie University, with the competition run by Macquarie with the support of Google Australia, Ford Australia, and other partners.

The competition sees seventy-three teams from across the Asia Pacific are taking part in the two 2018 Australian Regionals: Southern Cross Regional from 11-13 March and South Pacific Regional from 16-18 March 2018, and includes 51 Australian teams and teams from the United States, Taiwan, China, India, Singapore, Vietnam and Turkey.

More than 3,000 participants, family, schools, industry supporters and major sponsors will attend the event at Sydney Olympic Park over the course of the two three-day events, including over 1,000 participants, 500 volunteers and 73 robots competing (one from each team).

Indeed, organisers estimate over 350 batteries will be used in the course of the competition!

Thus these students from around the world will be pitting their skills against each other to battle it out at the FIRST Robotics Competition Australian Regionals.

FIRST Australia director Luan Heimlich explained: "It’s a competition, but it also teaches students design and engineering skills when they’re building their robots.

“They benefit from learning how to work together in teams, and cooperate and solve problems with tangible outcomes.”

We're told that this year’s theme is "Power Up, which finds teams and their robots stuck inside an old-school video arcade game, where they have to use power cubes to defeat the boss.

"For the first 15 seconds of each match the robots operate autonomously, following pre-programmed instructions. Then human operators remotely control their robots for the remaining two minutes and fifteen seconds of each bout.

"After only a six week preseason in which to build their robots, three-team alliances face off against each other in the two-and-a-half minute matches."

Article continues below image, please read on!

Executive Dean of Macquarie’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, Professor Barbara Messerle, said the event gives players a valuable insight into what a career in science, technology, engineering, or maths might look like.

“The best scientists and engineers have a passion for their field, and a desire to tackle the global challenges of our times,” said Messerle.

“We’re hoping that by taking part in FIRST, these students will not only have a lot of fun but realise the kinds of careers they now have the skills to pursue."

Google Australia’s Engineering Community and Outreach Manager, Sally-Ann Williams said: “Future innovations and inventions in Australia will come from students gaining skills in STEM and computer science today.

“We support FIRST in Australia to increase participation from students from rural, remote and other under-represented communities, and to help ensure that all students can develop the skills they need for the future.”

CDAO SYDNEY TURNS 5 IN 2019

With 50+ Speakers, 300+ senior data and analytics executives, over 3 exciting days you will indulge in all things data and analytics before leaving with strategic takeaways that will catapult you ahead on your journey

LEARN HOW TO REDUCE YOUR RISK OF A CYBER ATTACK

As we automate, script and move to the cloud, more and more businesses are reliant on infrastructure that has the high potential to be exposed to risk.

It only takes one awry email to expose an accounts’ payable process, and for cyber attackers to cost a business thousands of dollars.

In the free white paper ‘6 Steps to Improve your Business Cyber Security’ you’ll learn some simple steps you should be taking to prevent devastating and malicious cyber attacks from destroying your business.

Cyber security can no longer be ignored, in this white paper you’ll learn:

· How does business security get breached?
· What can it cost to get it wrong?
· 6 actionable tips

One of Australia’s best-known technology journalists and consumer tech experts, Alex has appeared in his capacity as technology expert on all of Australia’s free-to-air and pay TV networks on all the major news and current affairs programs, on commercial and public radio, and technology, lifestyle and reality TV shows. Visit Alex at Twitter here.